New credit cards will begin to be implanted with computer chips later this month in a move that, it is hoped, will eliminate credit and debit card fraud.
Mr Barry O'Mahony, senior manager of policy and projects with the Irish Payment Services Organisation, said the new technology - which will see card-holders keying in a PIN number instead of signing a receipt - would be introduced this month.
IPSO is the umbrella body for the card payments system here.
"You'll be hearing a lot more about this over the next 18 months to two years," said Mr O'Mahony.
"All going well, by 2005 all credit card customers will see the chip in their cards. It will mean the customer is no longer asked for a signature. Instead, the customer's card will be placed in a terminal and then the customer will key in a PIN number."
It would, he said, be the biggest project to unfold in the State since the introduction of the euro and was part of a Europe-wide initiative to tackle card fraud. Stolen credit/debit cards as well as card counterfeiting cost banking institutions here about €5 million a year.
Mr O'Mahony said the new chips would make it "almost impossible" to counterfeit cards or for transactions to go ahead without the cardholder's authorisation.
From the customer's point of view, it will also mean faster transactions at the till. There will no delay in verifying the card and no need to sign anything.
The programme is necessary as the major card schemes - Mastercard and Visa - have specified that the technology be incorporated into their cards across the globe.
Though the chips will begin appearing on cards this month, they will not be operational until the year after next. Until then the magnetic stripe will remain on credit and debit cards.
It would be up to each of the five clearing institutions - AIB, Bank of Ireland, TSB, NIB and Ulster Bank - when they completed the introduction, as long as they met the 2005 deadline, said Mr O'Mahony. He estimated the cost of introducing the new cards as well as equipping retailers with terminals at €6.25 million.
A spokeswoman for the Irish Bankers Federation said card fraud was increasing here though she added it was increasing the world over.
"The overall cost of credit card fraud has to be seen in context. Some 1.7 million credit cards were on issue here in 2001, up from 1.5 million in 2000, so there are a lot more cards to commit fraud with."
